


love's gonna get you down

by ApatheticRobots



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: (that starscream is trying desperately to make a healthy one), Communication, Cross-faction relationship, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Starscream Has the Brain Cell (for once in his god damn life), Unhealthy Relationships, but dont worry im traumatized as fuck too so its handled tastefully, sort of established relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:12:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28643496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ApatheticRobots/pseuds/ApatheticRobots
Summary: Starscream hates when he has to be the mature one.Unfortunately, Skyfire apparently has not been handling the whole "sudden reawakening into a brave new world" thing all that well, and sincehe'sbeing an idiot, the burden of not taking advantage of a situation and actually having a coherent thought falls to Starscream. Because damn him, he still cares about this giant moron.When two mechs have known each other for as long as they have, they kind of stop caring about the rules when it comes to each other.
Relationships: Jetfire | Skyfire/Starscream (Transformers)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 71





	love's gonna get you down

**Author's Note:**

> more unbeta'd shit that ive been working on for however long. i am sick of looking at it. i listened to about five different songs while writing this which means the tone jumps around like NO ONES BUSINESS and i legitimately debated putting the crack tag on it for that reason alone. but its not quite stupid enough to be crack. so., whatever 
> 
> also please dont expect 4-5k to be my new average for oneshots i have no idea whats been going on recently.
> 
> title is from lollipop by mika because i have brainrot and its been stuck in my head for a solid day at this point thats literally it. listen to it while reading this if you want i guess. itll help you take this less seriously

Starscream didn’t do a whole lot of things for fun these days. How could he, when they were deep in the throes of war? Any “free time” he might have had, which was already a scarce amount, was dedicated towards plotting against Megatron. Or doing his damnedest to get the Seekers into something resembling a functioning unit. As much as he shouted at them when they underperformed, he didn’t _want_ them being shot out of the sky like cannon fodder. With Cybertron not being an option and the strict forbiddance of any of the more more traditional methods of reproduction thanks to the fact that they were in the middle of a _Primus-damned war_ , their numbers would only decline. And with Vos gone, if the Seekers died off, their culture died with them.

He could give a slag about the individuals. But their people as a whole? Of course he cared. He hadn’t been put in charge for nothing.

So his time went towards either the Seekers or trying to off their idiot leader and maybe recharging (maybe) and nothing else. Nothing else, of course, besides his flights. Not the regular patrols he had to run to make sure there were no developments he was left unaware of, but when he went out on his own with no one to slow him down and just flew wherever he wanted. Megatron had tried to get him to stop many times before, stating it an unnecessary risk.

Little did he know that these flights were partly the reason he wasn’t _already_ dead. They didn’t stop Starscream wanting to get rid of him, of course, because that was a much deeper problem and wouldn’t be solved by any little stress-relieving activity, but they did stop him from doing something reckless that would get better results.

Which was how he wound up where he was, carefully monitoring local weather channels as he soared over a wide tundra and feather-light snow dusted over his wings. It wasn’t bad enough to be any detriment to his flying _now._ But these things could change intensity in seconds.

Speaking of.

Seeing the big white chassis half buried in the snow really shouldn’t have made Starscream’s spark jolt in fear as much as it did. He should have been _over_ this. It was so, so many years ago, they’d already _done_ this. He’d tried and failed to get Skyfire back. The shuttle was no longer the mech Starscream had known (had loved), he was just another Autobot traitor. It didn’t matter what happened to him.

Starscream angled his ailerons and circled back around anyways. Dipping down against the wind and transforming and landing on his pedes, he pulled his plating close against the chill. This planet's varying climate was ridiculous. It could be a sweltering desert in one place then a tundra a few hundred miles away.

The mech in the snow still didn’t move as he approached. The fear in Starscream’s spark got louder.

“Skyfire?”

There was the quiet creak of plating, then the crunch of snow, followed by the soft blue light of the shuttle’s optics spilling over the snow as Skyfire sat up and looked over at him.

“Starscream,” he said, voice warm. “It’s good to see you.”

Starscream wrapped his arms around himself. Skyfire sounded genuinely _glad_ to see him, as though their last parting hadn’t involved Starscream shooting him. As though they weren’t on opposite sides. 

The snow clinging to Skyfire’s chest covered his insignia.

“...You too,” Starscream said, quiet and unfortunately honest. “How… have you been?”

“I’ve been...okay. Sort of. Anyways, me aside, how about you? How have you been?”

He could answer that honestly too, tell Skyfire just how exhausting the last few days had been. It had kind of been their routine; Starscream would traipse into Skyfire’s dorm like he owned the place and plant himself on the shuttle’s lap until Skyfire stopped whatever he was doing and paid attention to him instead. Skyfire would ask how his day went, and he’d immediately go on a tangent about all the idiots in the academy he was forced to spend time with. He could do that again.

But things were just a little too different. 

“Fine as well.” He did sit, then, carefully in the snow beside Skyfire and making sure to keep an amount of distance between them. So there was no chance of accidental contact. “What are you doing out here?”

Skyfire shrugged. “Autobots were getting a bit too loud. Needed a break. Thought the stars looked nice.” There was a click from his vocalizer, like he was going to continue, but instead fell silent. 

Starscream sneered. "The stars hardly change."

"Yeah, but I haven't really gotten a chance to just look at 'em yet. Been too busy."

"Busy with your Autobot _friends._ "

Skyfire sighed, shoulders slumping. "You didn't have to land," he said, voice quiet. "But you did. You can leave if you're just gonna sit there and pout." It kind of sounded like he didn’t actually want Starscream to leave, but that very well might have been wishful thinking on the Seeker’s part. 

Damn him for knowing how to navigate Starscream's moods, though. The one mech he could never manage to goad into retorting. Starscream scowled and shifted closer.

There was a sideways glance at his proximity, but Skyfire didn't say a word about it. Which was kind of him. He was smart enough to know that if he did bring it up, if he was obvious about whatever they were doing, Starscream would turn tail and run. And… the fact that he knew as much and still _didn't_ bring it up was… well it sent a funny little shiver across Starscream's plating. Because it meant that even though he knew just how to get Starscream to leave, he didn’t utilize it, because he wanted him around. Or maybe he was just shivering because of the cold.

He was designed for deep space travel. But the chill of space travel was a lot different than sitting totally still in the middle of a blizzard at night. He could absorb heat in space.

Silently, because he still knew saying anything about it would be a bad idea, Skyfire shifted closer and wrapped one big arm around Starscream's back, pulling him up against his own chassis and the heat it produced. Starscream pretended he didn't melt into the contact as easily as he did.

"Is there anything you like about this planet?" Skyfire asked quietly.

Starscream scowled. No, there wasn't. He hated every part of this smelly, damp, disgustingly organic planet. 

"I like the oceans," he said regretfully.

Skyfire pulled him slightly closer. A silent prompt for him to elaborate a little more.

He sighed. "There's a sort of peace that comes when you get out into the middle of the oceans. It's just endless water on every side, no land in sight, just sea and sky and you in the center of it all. It's… freeing, I suppose." Once you got down into them the oceans were just wet and gross, with water that caused rust spots on his plating and sand that got caught in his gears. He _hated_ being stuck in a confined space underwater. But when the Seekers were sent on patrols and he was able to just fly for miles with nothing but himself and the ocean keeping him company… it wasn't totally abhorrent.

“The oceans are nice,” Skyfire agreed. “I like how much variety there is. In the plants and the animals. Even ones that come from a similar place; they can have the same exact common ancestor, but if they evolved in different areas, they’ll end up completely different.” Ugh. It would be a real nice favor if he would stop sounding the exact same way he always had when he started talking about life on other planets. That borderline reverent tone that Starscream could listen to all day.

“Of course that’s what you like,” he muttered, hoping it actually sounded venomous and not as teasing and friendly as it was to his audials. “Once a xenobiologist, always a xenobiologist, hm?”

Skyfire laughed, tilting his head to rest it on top of Starscream’s. “Maybe so.”

They fell into an unfortunately comfortable silence, simply watching the snowfall gathering in drifts around them. With the moon covered by clouds, the only light came from the dim glow of their optics, and cast the snow in mingling shades of red and blue. 

“Starscream,” Skyfire said quietly, and Starscream almost berated him for breaking the peaceful silence, but he kept speaking before he got the chance; “why did you land?”

Well, not the most damning question he could have asked.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he continued, “I’m glad you did. I missed you. And I missed spending time with you like this, without us having to fight. But… I mean, I’d kind of gotten the impression you didn’t really want anything to do with me anymore.” Yeah, okay, Starscream supposed shooting at someone might send that kind of message. “You don’t have to leave. I’m just kind of wondering what you want from this.”

Skyfire still had an arm around him, and was idly tracing the edge of one wing. Completely without his input, he stretched his wing and pressed it further into Skyfire’s servo. The shuttle dutifully moved from just tracing the edge to petting over the surface in wide sweeps. “Would you believe me if I said I didn’t know?”

An amused huff. “No, I would not. You rarely do things for no reason.”

Damn. He forgot Skyfire knew him really well. 

“Well, maybe I just wanted to…” He trailed off as he glanced over and spotted the weary look on Skyfire’s face. Maybe this wasn’t exactly the right time to make up something that aligned with his usual attitude. It wasn’t like he really had any appearances to keep up. Skyfire had already seen him at his worst (on an hour of recharge, underfueled, with three exams in one day), what more dignity did he really have to lose? “...I was worried.”

Skyfire blinked at him curiously. “Worried?”

“For _you.”_ He leaned further against Skyfire’s side, and after a little maneuvering to try and make it more comfortable Skyfire just cut out the middleman and hefted Starscream up and set him in his lap. Starscream didn’t even bother pretending to protest. “I saw you while I was flying over. Buried in the snow. It was like…”

He got it. He always did. Even when Starscream couldn’t find the words. “It was like the blizzard again, huh?”

Starscream nodded silently, turning around and pressing his face into the crook of the shuttle’s neck. It was a little awkward, the way their canopies scraped together, but Skyfire didn’t say a word about it. Just readjusted his grip so he was holding Starscream in a loose embrace.

Yeah, he’d missed this. No denying that.

“Sorry,” Skyfire said quietly. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just thought it was kinda peaceful.”

“Don’t apologize,” Starscream snapped without the slightest bit of actual heat in his tone. “It’s my own fault for being so… easily affected.” There was no good way to word that. _Weak,_ his mind whispered, but then he realized the voice that prompted it was Megatron’s and immediately took a mental crowbar to the thought.

Skyfire was quiet for a moment, and his voice was even softer than before when he next spoke; “You don’t have to feel bad about… getting scared.”

He laughed, bitter and cold. “Of course I do. There’s no room for fear in the Decepticons. Or weakness, or sadness, or any of those other things that Megatron considers inferior. I don’t need to give him any _more_ excuses to hurt me.” 

Silence.

Scrap. 

“Don’t--”

“Come with me,” Skyfire said, and Starscream felt his struts go cold. “Please. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, they’ll let you stay there. There’s energon, and heating, and you’re free to come and go as you please. No one will hurt you. The Autobots might not be very nice but--”

“So that’s what this is,” Starscream said with a hiss, claws digging into Skyfire’s plating, dangerously near to the cables of his neck. “A recruitment effort.”

“What-- No, Starscream--”

“If that’s all you wanted from me, for me to be a _traitor_ like you, i’m afraid this whole endeavor has been a waste of time.” He hoped his tone sounded angry, because all he was feeling was a sickening sense of hurt. Of course it was foolish of him to think Skyfire would _actually_ want to spend time with him again, after everything they’d been through, after what Starscream had done to him. 

“That’s not--”

“I may have my qualms with Megatron, but I still believe in the Decepticon’s ideals. If you think for even a _second_ that I would side with the mechs who took on the image of our oppressors you have another thing--”

Skyfire kissed him.

Which, Pit, if there was ever a way to get him to shut up.

But that was _years_ ago. And now they had an attempted murder between them. Which, sure, was kind of how Decepticons tended to flirt, and it wasn’t like kissing Skyfire felt any different than it had back then, and there was nothing about this situation that Starscream didn’t like, it was still a little rude for him to use such an underhanded tactic.

He shoved at the shuttle, pushing him away and fully intending to make his displeasure known, but Skyfire grabbed his arms and pulled him into a strut-crushing hug before he could even start to send the signal to his vocalizer.

“That’s not what I meant,” he said, somewhat desperately. “Please don’t be mad. I didn’t come out here hoping to find you to try and get you to join the Autobots. I-- okay, I did lie a little, I was hoping I’d run into you, but _not_ so I could try to recruit you. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that, I just--” He sighed, letting his head fall to rest on top of Starscream’s. “I don’t like seeing you hurt. I wasn’t there for long, but I _saw_ how he treated you, and I hate it. I’m not trying to convince you to join the Autobots because I think they’re good, I just want you to leave so he can’t reach you anymore. And I...” He coughed once. “Kind of hoped you’d… want to come with me.”

“Back to the Autobots.”

“Or just come with me… anywhere. We don’t have to go back to them. I just want to… help. However I can, in whatever way that means for you.” 

  
Starscream sighed. His earlier anger gone, it had been replaced with a grim acceptance, and he reached up to pat the side of Skyfire’s helm. “It’s a nice thought,” he said. “Unfortunately, I can’t accept. As I said, while I no longer see Megatron as anything more than a tyrant, I do still believe in what we’re fighting for. I don’t want to see the Autobots win. And currently, myself and Soundwave are the only things that have stopped us from losing thus far. If I leave, he’ll have to do it alone, and I don’t think he’s got the struts.”

“Why does it have to be _you?”_ Skyfire ran a servo across his wings. “Why can’t someone else take charge? Please, Starscream. I can’t bear to see you keep doing this to yourself.”

“Don’t beg, it’s unbecoming of you,” he chastised. “As for why it has to be me, I’m the only one with the bearings to do what needs to be done. Megatron is a fool. He’s an ancient idiot with holes in his processor. Everyone else in that army is either blindly loyal or just as stupid. So no, there _is_ no one else. It has to be me.”

Mournfully, Skyfire shook his head. “I wish it didn’t.”

“I know. And that’s a nice sentiment.” He patted Skyfire’s cheek, the gesture a little bit patronizing. “I appreciate that you would spend time wishing on my behalf. But I chose my life, Skyfire, I chose this path. And I intend to see it to the end.”

Skyfire pulled him close again, shoving his face against Starscream’s shoulder. He was shaking, practically curled around the Seeker, clutching him like an organic child might hold a stuffed toy. It was a terribly pathetic gesture for a mech of his size. Which had always been one of the things that had endeared him to Starscream, just how small he tried to act when he was so much bigger than everyone else. Starscream idly wondered if he knew that and was trying to use it to his advantage to make Starscream pity him more.

No, Starscream decided, he was cunning, but not _that_ cunning.

“I can’t go back with you,” Skyfire mumbled against his plating. “I can’t-- they’ll expect me to hurt people again. I’ll have to watch _you_ hurt people again. And I can’t do that anymore, I’m just not built for it. But I still want to do what I can for you. So if you need anything, if you want to get away, if you need help and no one else is willing to give it to you--”

“You’ll come flying in?” Against his better judgement, he wrapped his arms around Skyfire and held him close. “My… what is it the humans say, ‘knight in shining armor?’”

“Well, if I’m nearby, yes. If I’m not, you can comm me, and I’ll come running. I’ll be there for you whenever you need.” Skyfire’s spark beat at a rapid-fire pace, and though it was as silent as a spark ever was, Starscream could nearly feel the vibrations of it even through his thick plating. “You’re my number one priority, okay? Not the Autobots. Not any of the mechs I’ve met since waking up. I--” He made a choked noise. “I don’t even understand why we’re fighting. No one will give me an honest answer, it’s all half-afted platitudes or opinionated statements and it’s kind of hard to care about a war when I can’t figure out what the war is about. I don’t know what’s going on anymore. But I know you, you’re still the same Starscream I knew even if you’ve changed, and I just--” Starscream felt his plating shudder. “I need the familiarity you bring, okay? I don’t understand anything else about this world, but I understand you.”

He’d seemed so confident at the start of their little clandestine meeting. Now he was shaking, clinging to the Seeker like his very life depended on it. He hadn’t even felt the time pass, was he really that badly affected by it?

“Haven’t you made _any_ friends with the Autobots?” Starscream asked him quietly.

“Not really. I think they’re all either suspicious of me, or scared of me, or don’t really know how to talk to me. They’re not used to having a flier around. Especially not one as big as me, bigger than their Prime, who used to be a Decepticon no matter how briefly. They don’t get very many defectors.” He shook his head, digits curling into the cabling between Starscream’s wings. “I’ve got no one. No one but you.” That kind of sounded fake, most the Autobots were way too nice from what little Starscream had seen of them outside battle.

“You shouldn’t,” Starscream said, regretfully, though didn’t pull away or at all try to discourage Skyfire from anything he was doing with his servos. “You need other people, Skyfire. I can’t be the only one you depend on.”

“Why not?”

Damnit, he really didn’t want to make this easy on Starscream, did he? “I don’t know,” Starscream mumbled. “It’s unhealthy or something?”

“Everything about my life is unhealthy. Starscream, you don’t understand,” he pulled back just enough to grab Starscream’s arms and hold him still, leaning down to look him in the optics. The distress behind that blue light was clear. “None of this feels _real._ I feel like-- like nothing I’m doing is actually happening. Every morning I wake up on the Ark, and I refuel, and I fly the Autobots wherever they need to go, but I might as well not even be there while I’m doing these things. It feels like I never woke up from the ice. That I’m still down there, like-- like this is all a dream.” He shook his head again, like he was trying to physically rid himself of his thoughts. “It’s like I’m an outside observer in my own life.”

“That’s not good,” Starscream said, for lack of anything better to say. This was way beyond the kind of thing he was built to handle. Performing dangerous aerial maneuvers and fighting for his life were easy-- dealing with his old partner’s trauma from having been literally frozen in time for millions of years was not. 

Still holding onto one of Starscream’s arms (either to ground himself or keep Starscream from running away, he couldn’t be sure), Skyfire raised his other servo to curl it around the side of Starscream’s helm. “You’re the _only_ one who makes me feel like I’m actually here, you know? Everything else is just… background noise. They could be figments of my imagination for all I know. But you’re too real to be anyone but _you._ ”

Starscream leaned forward, grabbed Skyfire by the front of his chestplate, and pulled him down into a kiss. The shuttle made a pleased noise and immediately tilted his head to deepen it. Starscream could feel his servos shaking on the various points of contact.

It only took a gentle push on Starscream’s end to get Skyfire on his back in the (rapidly melting, with the combined heat of their frames) snow, with him seated on the larger mech’s midsection.

Skyfire stared up at him with unadulterated adoration in his optics. “You look good up there.”

“And you’re sweet,” Starscream said, cupping Skyfire’s face and leaning down to plant a chaste kiss on his forehead. “But you’re also not in a very good place right now. You need more friends, Skyfire, and not just because we’re on opposite sides of a war. As appealing as the idea of having a big hulking mech like you so dedicated to me is,” and it _really_ was; he’d always liked the idea of holding any mech’s future in the palm of his servo, and that mech being so big and tough (...sorta) only sweetened the offer. But he didn’t want that with Skyfire. He didn’t want the shuttle to have to rely on anyone but himself. He cared too much. “It’s not good. I’m not the same mech you once knew, and you’ve hardly changed. We can still be… close,” he amended, because Skyfire was starting to look like Starscream had ripped his spark out and stepped on it, “but I can’t be the only person who’s there for you.”

“I don’t…” he looked… lost.

Ugh, Starscream _hated_ having to take the moral high ground. He clambered off from his perch on top of the shuttle, then stood and reached down to haul Skyfire to his pedes. Skyfire went easily, but when he moved to pick up Starscream again and hold him or something, Starscream stepped out of reach.

Skyfire’s face fell. “Starscream--”

“Look, Skyfire,” he huffed. “Unfortunately for the both of us, I still care about you. Which means I’m not content to let you waste away like you will if you don’t pick yourself up and start living your own life.” He smacked the shuttle’s chest. “You are a disgustingly likeable mech, you big idiot. I can hardly believe that after all this time you haven’t found a single Autobot who at least doesn’t outright hate you. Now are you actually being shunned from their ranks, or have you just made an effort to talk to them as little as possible?”

The guilty look on Skyfire’s face was enough of an answer.

“Ugh, you’ve picked up all of my worst habits,” Starscream muttered. “Who among them hasn’t acted outright hostile towards you?”

“Well…” Yep. He’d totally been self-isolating. Sheepishly, he reached up to rub at the back of his helm in an awkward fidget. “Wheeljack and Perceptor have been pretty nice. They try to include me in conversations, and talk to me about my research. Optimus is nice too. He’s made it really clear that my past doesn’t define me and stuff. Also, um, Jazz is cool, I guess.” 

Eh, well, two of four wasn’t bad. Could’ve been a worse selection of names. (He could’ve said Prowl or those twins or something.) At least Jazz knew when to keep his mouth shut. But-- really-- the _Prime?_

Whatever. His personal distaste was not the point.

“So there _are_ mechs who don’t fall under the criteria you mentioned earlier.” He knew it sounded fake. It was a damn shame that Skyfire seemed to be taking a page from his book, given his book was not a very trustworthy source. “What’s the _actual_ reason you haven’t already found a crowd of mechs to form a clique of nerds out of yet?”

A huff. “I don’t _know,_ okay? Is that what you wanted me to admit?” Skyfire wrapped his arms around himself and looked away. “I don’t know why I’m doing what I’m doing. I hate being alone. I always have, you know that.”

“I do know that,” Starscream admitted. It was part of the reason he and Skyfire had gotten so close. Originally, they’d wanted nothing to do with each other. Opposite personalities and ideals (and fields of study that hadn’t really dictated them interacting) meant they weren’t that great of a match. But being the only two fliers at the academy had kind of forced them together-- unless Skyfire wanted to hang around a bunch of pompous grounders who constantly made jokes at the expense of him and his frame class, Starscream was about his only option for socialization. And since he loathed solitude so much… they’d ended up spending more time around each other than they would have really liked.

At least it _sort of_ turned out okay in the end. It was going well for a while there.

And then, well. Imagine vague gesturing at their general surroundings in lieu of a proper elaboration on what exactly had gone wrong. 

He looked up at the shuttle, still shifting uncomfortably where he stood, arms wrapped around himself and refusing to meet Starscream’s optics. It was the kind of look he’d get whenever he went behind Starscream’s back to get something done without interference. He could never hide his guilt very well.

“Skyfire,” he said, and when the shuttle didn’t respond; _“Skyfire.”_

He looked up, biting his lip.

“Are you listening to me?” A nod. “Good. Because, regretfully, I do still care about what happens to you, I’m going to give you some directions and you’re going to follow them, got that?” Another nod. “Also good. Now, here’s what’s going to happen; we’re going to stay out here for a little while longer, until the both of us get too cold and underfueled. And then we’re going to leave without trouble and go back to our respective home bases.”

Skyfire started to interrupt, but Starscream held up a digit. He wasn’t _done._ “And what I’m going to do when I get back is unimportant, but here’s what _you’re_ going to do. You’re going to wait until a respectable hour when mechs are actually awake, and then you’re going to go down to whatever pitiful excuse for a lab the Autobots have there, and you’re going to pick one of the various species on Earth that you’ve been having to physically restrain yourself from talking about and you’re going to go up to one of the mechs who’s been living here for a great deal longer and you’re going to use talking about it as an opener. And because you’re ridiculously likeable, the conversation will continue on its own, and when whatever Autobot you picked asks you to join them and their friends in doing _whatever,_ you’re going to accept the invitation instead of turning it down with some excuse of unavailability. Am I clear?”

“Starscream…”

“Am I _clear?”_

“...You’re clear.” Skyfire stared at him for a moment longer, then gave this stupid little smile and started laughing quietly. “When did you get so much better at this than me, huh?” he asked, all appreciative wonder. 

  
“Sometime between now and several million years ago,” Starscream said, trying to sound cold and bitter and landing somewhere in the ‘dry sarcasm’ range, as he ended up doing with most of the things he said. Usually not on purpose. “I still wasn’t finished, though. After you’ve gone and made some friends and feel more sure of who you are and that all of _this,”_ he said with a wide sweep of his arms, “is real, then-- and _only_ then-- are you going to reevaluate how you feel about me. If-- and _only_ if-- you still genuinely want to see me and aren’t just hanging on to the only remaining part of your past that’s still accessible to you, you can send me a comm, and we’ll _discuss_ extended communications between us.”

There was a bright grin on Skyfire’s face as Starscream finally got to the point, at which Starscream rolled his optics. “Oh, stop it. You look like an idiot.”

“Yeah, yeah, see-- you always _say_ I look like an idiot, but I’m kinda starting to think you don’t really mean it.” He moved forward and swept Starscream up into a hug, and even though Starscream couldn’t see his expression where his face was shoved against the shuttle’s shoulder, he could just tell it was that slag-eating grin he liked to pretend he didn’t have. “Part of your plan was us staying out here for a little bit longer, right? Can we get to that part?”

Sighing, huffing, and overall making it seem like it was way more of an effort to agree than it really was, Starscream gave Skyfire’s helm a pat. “Fine. But remember, you have to hold up _your_ end of the plan. I _will_ kidnap and Autobot and interrogate them to make sure you are, and if you’re not, I’ll shoot you for real.” He paused. “Actually, I’ll shoot the Autobot, that’s probably more of a motivator.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I don’t really like seeing other folks hurt, but I kind of don’t have very good self-preservation instincts. Especially when it comes to you.” He plopped back down in the snow, sending up a small flurry around them. “Probably would’ve stopped hanging around you a lot sooner if I did.”

“Well,” Starscream said, settling into Skyfire’s lap and sighing. “For what it’s worth. As messy as things may have turned out in the end. I, for one, am glad you _didn’t_ decide to be smarter about things. I’d have missed you.” The subtext of “ _I did miss you”_ went unspoken.

On Starscream’s behalf, at least, because Skyfire just hugged him tighter and said, with no care for subtlety; “I missed you too.” 


End file.
